The novel series A Song of Ice and Fire that was recently made into the hit HBO series Game of Thrones titled after the first book, the series combines medieval and fantasy setting with the drama of shifting political power.

All the books have either won or were nominated for awards and the TV series has been recently won awards as well.

So far I've only seen the HBO series, but I ordered the first four books and plan to read through them. Anyone else hooked on the series?

I've read the first three books. They're pretty darn good. Martin is really good as a character developer. He's also great at throwing you off the scent of what's really going on, as well as making you question your loyalties.

Haven't seen the series yet, sadly. I'm waiting for it to be released over here in the UK. I've heard good things of it, though.

I've seen the series (in one day in a beer and pizza-fulled session at my friend's house), and it was bloody awesome. Really good in terms of character development as well as plot twists.

Then I saw the book at the store I work at. I was tempted to buy it, but then I picked it up and realised the sheer size of the bloody thing. And that was just A Game of Thrones. Nearby were a few others such as Storm of Swords and they were comparable. It brought to mind the old phrase: 'The covers of this book are too far apart.'

Don't get me wrong, I like a good read, but I feel like these may be a tad beyond my limit. Looking forward to the second season of the show, though!

Excellent. I was wondering if the show picked up any awards. Tyrion is a great character, just through sheer comic value. That and being fairly genre savvy, which you don't much see in settings like this.

Much of said session watching it was spent musing whether Martin knew much of British internal views (I think he's American, but I'm not sure), given that Westeros is set out pretty much exactly like Britain and

has the North leading a revolt against the capital, which I think almost every Yorkshireman has dreamt of at some point

. Having Sean Bean in it just helps this case.

I particularly loved the whole 'Wall is there to stop unspeakable monsters from the North'. Great when you think of most Scottish cities on a saturday night. The Eyrie/Vale was a bit of a shout-out to Wales (mountain men, the Queen who still breastfeeds her 8-year-old son) and King's Landing is clearly London.

I also loved the Dothraki. Jason Momoa seems to be getting a lot of work as GENERIC BARBARIAN now that Stargate Atlantis is over.

Bear in mind that I know most of what happens because I don't give a fuck about spoilers. I want to read the book but given that I struggle with the fucking Hobbit I don't think I'll get through them.

I've found Martin much easier to read than Tolkien, but you may want to consider listening to the audiobooks, Dave-ster. Roy Dotrice does a fantastic job on the first three (though he does struggle a bit in A Dance With Dragons and Feast for Crows on because of an illness)

Finished A Dance With Dragons today. I consider it a step up from A Feast for Crows (even though I'm one of the few who seemed to really enjoy AFFC) because even though I enjoyed seeing some parts of the seven kingdoms that were lacking in the previous books there were other parts that I really didn't care about-(AFFC spoilers)

Davos isn't dead! Hooray! And the good news keeps on coming, as Davos' last chapter has some of the greatest lines and shows that the North has not forgotten Robb Stark. In fact, the North remembers.
It also introduced me to my new favorite Northman, as Wyman Manderly takes up the place of the Great Jon Umber. Manderly's intelligence and honor is tempered by patience that would make Doran Martell proud- it's one thing to know that the man who killed your kin and lord is out there (like Gregor Clegane) and another to have to suffer the plotters under your roof, feed them and promise your granddaughter to one of them. Of course he's not able to fully restrain himself from unleashing a great line on the Freys at Winterfell "It's probably for the best. If he'd lived, he would have become a Frey."
Ser Barristan is awesome.
Damn, I'm bummed about Quentyn. Not necessarily because I liked him all that much, but I like prince Doran so much and I know losing his son is going to hurt. Hopefully Aegon will give him some solace, as I think in TWOW the Dornish are finally going to war.
Cersei's idiocy in AFFC in spurning the Iron Bank appears to be bearing fruit for Stannis, if he can survive long enough to harvest it. Given that Ramsay is Ramsay I'm not much inclined to believe his letter to Jon. Also holy fuck the last Jon chapter. After all of his work with the wildlings I have to wonder what will happen there. Will Jon survive? Will Melisandre give him the kiss of life like Thoros of Myr? If Jon dies will the Nights Watch try and fight the free folk that Tormund has south of the Wall? They may have done it "For the Watch" but it could end up spelling the end of the Night's Watch if they try and take on a few thousand free folk south of the wall.
Tyrion is good value as always, but I was disappointed in a lot of the Danaerys stuff. She makes frustrating decisions, as you'd expect of a young girl. Perhaps a certain Iron Captain can make her change her opinions- Victarion chapters were a good read, so I'm hopeful that he'll play a big part in TWOW as well.

Dany isn't on my favourites list, but she is well portrayed on the HBO Show. Personally, I think we need Dorne/Martell. The Sand Snakes have been notably lacking in the Show, but with Season 4, hopefully that problem will be rectified. <3

Oh, he and Ellaria are certainly welcome additions to KL. The Lannisters have something awful coming. ;)

Regarding Oberyn, I so hope that they make his character too outwardly flamboyant and "heyez, everybody, I'm bisexual!1!1!". When I talked to my LGBTQ friends who are fans of the ASOIAF, they mentioned that bisexual/queer characters are rarely portrayed authentically in television, whereby their sexuality is not the main thing that defines them. That makes bisexuality tokenistic, if that makes sense.

Of course, by the same token, an acknowledgement of the fact that he's not heteronormative would also help. Portray him as he is in the books: an absolute, mofo badass who is lecherous and doesn't limit himself to only one type of bed warmer.

Tyene and Nymeria are also going to be awesome. And of course, Arianne Martell, that conniving girl. <3

Regarding Oberyn, I so hope that they make his character too outwardly flamboyant and "heyez, everybody, I'm bisexual!1!1!". When I talked to my LGBTQ friends who are fans of the ASOIAF, they mentioned that bisexual/queer characters are rarely portrayed authentically in television, whereby their sexuality is not the main thing that defines them. That makes bisexuality tokenistic, if that makes sense.

Of course, by the same token, an acknowledgement of the fact that he's not heteronormative would also help. Portray him as he is in the books: an absolute, mofo badass who is lecherous and doesn't limit himself to only one type of bed warmer.

I don't have high hopes for them doing a good job on Oberyn's bisexual interests, given the extremely stereotypical portrayal of homosexuality in the show. Loras Tyrell went from utterly badass best knight in the kingdom who happened to love Renly Baratheon to the stereotypical gay guy who'd jump into bed with any man and happens to be a very good jouster. If it comes out I hope it's just mentioned in passing, as for all the excellence in the show their treatment of sexuality hasn't been great so far.